PICK UP THE PHONE

Recently, I found myself doing what many business people do, multi-tasking. A talent we appreciate and find essential for survival in the work world, right?

I was busy “listening” on a conference call while scanning my inbox and responding to a few emails.

In one exchange, I found myself on the receiving end of a message in bold CAPS, “WHY DOESN”T ANY ONE PICK UP THE PHONE ANY MORE!”

At first glance, I laughed because the sender of that message had initiated the email exchange in the first place, but soon after, I began to feel a bit defensive and for a moment, wanted to BOLDLY reply.

After further reflection, my defensiveness gave way to the realization that the sender of the message was exactly right; I needed to give that conversation 100 percent of my attention. It was a conversation that deserved voice-to-voice interaction.

If I had instead waited until after the conference call to initiate further discussion through a phone call, things would have never escalated to an email “shouting” match.

It turns out, we were actually on the same side, wanting the same end result.

I am not advocating doing away with multi-tasking. I am saying, take a moment and be sure we are present and connected on a human level, voice-to-voice—when the moment calls for it. When there is potential for the message to be misunderstood, where there is room for misinterpretation, if there is a problem—PICK UP THE PHONE.